Lauri J. Owen continues her Embers series with Blowing Embers, a wonderful, fast-paced sequel to Fallen Embers.

Fire-mage Kiera is now the governor of the alternate Fairbanks and married to bear-shifter, Laszlo. However, all is not well. There is unrest within Fairbanks between the mages and the newly-freed shifters. To make matters worse, surrounding deconns want to wage war on Fairbanks. (more…)

Dragonfire author, Deborah Cooke, tries her hand at YA with The Dragon Diaries. Set within the same world, the first book, Flying Blind, introduces us to the youngest Pyr.

Since she was born, everyone knew that Zoe Sorensson was destined to be the next Wyvern of the Pyr, a race of male dragon shifters, with the wyvern being the only female. Zoe keeps waiting for her wyvern powers to come to her…as well as other indications that she is becoming a woman. When she does come into her dragon, it is during a fight defending her best friend. Unfortunately, the fight is on school property and the fact that Zoe shows her dragon to humans is worse than the suspension-worthy fight itself. (more…)

Prophetic visions, ritualistic killings, and ancient druids – Catherine Anne Collins brings all of these to modern-day Salem in A Witch’s Legacy.

Making use of her interior designer skills, Cassandra’s brother has sent her to his new house in Salem to decorate the place, hoping that by being in the town most famous for witches, Cassandra will embrace her own inner witch. While there, she meets others with powers, including sexy cop, Samson. Things get weird, though, when murder victims start showing up based on the seven deadly sins and Cassandra has visions of the murders. On top of that, Cassandra and Samson both seem to be having dreams of Avalon long ago. Are these events somehow connected?
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Lara Nance sure knows how to tell a good ghost story. Memories of Murder perfectly blends the paranormal with a cozy mystery – with some romance thrown in for good measure.

Desperate to escape her past after killing an attacker with magic, Maeve McKenna sheds her witchy ways and takes a position as the resident RN at a small-town nursing home. On her first day of work, her arrival is greeted by one of the Alzheimer’s patients jumping off the roof of the building. Everyone else thinks it was a result of his condition, but the more Maeve learns about the patient’s life, the more she thinks there is something wrong with his diagnosis.
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Shannon Rouchelle’s Dead World is perhaps one of the most unique books I have ever read. In it, she combines my two favorite subgenres – ghost stories and epic fantasy – which is something I have never come across before.

After the death of his son, Ryan, Dennis Campbell’s life begins falling apart. His days are filled with sightings of his wife who left him for his best friend and moved just across the street. (more…)

There are times when nothing can beat a good, old-fashioned scary story. Lisa McMann’s Cryer’s Cross falls into this brand of horror, a chilling, creepy tale that just sneaks up on the reader.

Kendall Fletcher has lived her entire life in the small town of Cryer’s Cross, Montana. She dreams of graduating from her one-room high school and attending Julliard to pursue her love of the performing arts. But things start to change in Cryer’s Cross, turning Kendall’s life upside-down. (more…)

Zombies might be all the rage right now, but they are not the least bit romantic. Amy Plum, though, has figured out how to make them so. Die for Me, the first book in her Revenants trilogy, brings to the forefront an ancient paranormal creature similar to a zombie or vampire called a revenant—but Plum puts her own spin on the genre, making them a far cry from the terrifying monsters of old.
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A cursed family heirloom is the heart of Annette Shelley’s Nightmare. Arte Shaw is an up-and-coming appliance sales rep in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1958. Shortly before his wedding anniversary, he is chosen to be the Iowa representative at a big convention in Chicago. His wife, Anita, is not as happy about the trip as he is; it means not only that he will be away for their anniversary but also that he will take his first airplane trip without her. Knowing that the trip means great things for him, Arte is determined to ignore Anita’s coldness and make himself stand out from the other sales reps. In the attic, he finds just what he needs – a strange ring that was his father’s.
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The latest Lucy Valentine novel really amps up the mystery. All of Heather Webb’s characters we have come to love are back in Absolutely, Positively, but this time, Lucy’s cases have danger coming at her from every direction.

Work at Lost Loves is picking up, but the staff is constantly distracted by a masked figure who keeps throwing out money to crowds at the park across the street. (more…)

 Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits is a collection of five stories, two by Robin McKinley – “Hellhound” and “First Flight,” and three by Peter Dickinson – “Phoenix,” “Fireworm,” and “Salamander Man.” As a topic, these “fire elementals” make for a great story collection. As for the stories themselves, there is a major difference in the two authors’ styles, and this makes for an uneven collection.
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Time-travel used to only be a thing of hardcore sci-fi. It has only been within the last few years that it has become a more mainstream trope as authors started making time-travel less a thing of machines and more a thing of extraordinary genetic make-up. Myra McEntire’s Hourglass is one such novel.
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Lark LaTroy’s first NeoDruids novella, Druids Dawning, is a fast-paced, tightly-plotted thriller. It does have some erotic elements, but those are easily eclipsed by the suspense LaTroy expertly weaves.

After his initiation as a Druid, Mitch Walker, aka Falnon to the other Druids, learns that he has been blessed by the goddess with two gifts—one of them exceedingly rare. His fellow Druids can help him master Foresight, but very little has been written about Blink-Stepping. All his master, Galnor, knows is that Druids are only bestowed two gifts when they need to use them in conjunction to fight a terrible evil. (more…)

Lynn Kurland definitely has a knack for writing romantic fantasy that still appeals to the average epic fantasy fan. Sure, no man is probably going to pick up and enjoy (or at least admit to enjoying) her Nine Kingdoms series, but women fantasy fans who shun romance will find Spellweaver a delightful addition to their library.
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Jessica Verday’s latest book, The Haunted, is the sequel to The Hollow, and they must be read in that order (and I suggest not even reading this review if you plan on reading The Hollow – there is a major spoiler that cannot be avoided).

The Haunted starts a few months after The Hollow ended. Abbey is living with her Aunt Marjorie where she is finishing up sessions with her psychiatrist. (more…)

Lucy Valentine is back, and although her career is now on track, her love life sure is not. Heather Webber’s second Lucy Valentine novel, Deeply, Desperately, is just as fun as the first, even if Lucy has more mystery in her own life than in her cases.

Having been outed as a psychic who can find lost objects, Lucy has finally found a way to help with the family business. While she may not be able to make matches like her aura-seeing father, she can help people reunite with lost loves — assuming they gave their former flame a gift. (more…)

Lauri J. Owen’s  Fallen Embers is very difficult to classify. It is a fantasy, that much is certain, but figuring out with sub-genre is where it gets tricky – there are alternate worlds, shape-shifters, romance, a BBW heroine, magic, and political intrigue.

Keira is comfortable with herself and her life, even if it is not perfect. (more…)

In just a few short years, Lauren Oliver has really made a name for herself in the YA market. Delirium, the first in the trilogy of the same name, is a shining example of why.

Lena Haloway has spent the first seventeen years of her life just wanting to be normal, unlike her mother who took her own life after failing the treatment for the dreaded amor deliria nervosa multiple times. She has only months to go before she has the procedure that will cure her forever and mark her as an adult, but things are about to change in a major way for Lena. (more…)

In stories with a modern-day setting, mutations have become a staple of the sci-fi genre as they make for great superheroes. A new YA entry into this genre is Synapses by Ashley Mann.

Sixteen years ago, a man volunteered in the hospital nursery, rocking newborns, until he was relieved of his duty when he was seen waving a strange object over the infants. Thirteen of the babies he tended to die of SIDS within a year. But some did live and are now finding they have strange powers.
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This is the author’s revised edition of Ghosts, a novel Noel Hynd originally wrote in 1993. As I have not read the 1993 version, I cannot say what has changed other than some obvious modernizations such as the use of Blackberries. There were a few spots it seems that Hynd missed updating as the dates or ideas do not fit with the rest of the narrative, but if readers can overlook this, they will be in for one hell of a terror ride.
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Shane Briant has made a stunning debut into the world of horror. Worst Nightmares is great scarefest in the style of Stephen King.

Author Dermot Nolan is suffering from a bad case of writer’s block. Because of this, his life is slowing falling apart. His wife, Neela, wants to start a family, but there are bills to pay. (more…)